The merchant panel session at the 2025 TDUK Global Market Conference brought together three leading voices from the UK builders’ merchant sector to discuss the state of trade in 2025 and what lies ahead next year. The session, chaired by Timber Development UK’s David Hopkins, featured Keith Fryer, Director of Business Development at FORT Builders’ Merchant, Gareth Nicholls, Head of Timber Category at MKM Building Supplies, and Rob Williams, Category Director at Jewson.
Keith Fryer opened the discussion, giving his perspective from a relatively young merchant business. “For FORT, this year has been a game of two halves,” he said. Early results were strong and, at one point, FORT was “16% ahead of last year” before sales slowed dramatically in summer.
He described how smaller independent merchants are staying resilient by focusing on keeping tight financial control. “Cash is king,” he said. “Get your stock down, go for margin, analyse every single line item and extract the best possible price.” Service levels remain crucial despite cost pressures, he said. “We’ve kept going really quite well,” Keith said, “but there’s no point pretending it isn’t a tough market out there.”
MKM’s Gareth Nicholls agreed the market has been “relatively flat”, though he reported solid progress. “We’ve done relatively well by taking market share [with] some good double-digit growth.” Timber, he added, “is becoming more and more important to MKM,” with growth across both structural and joinery ranges.
He also confirmed MKM’s support for the new campaign promoting British C16 timber. “We don’t want to grow homegrown timber at the expense of imported products, but we want to promote it properly next year.” Gareth noted that if European mills reduce output, “that’s got massive implications for all of us”, emphasising the need for merchants to have close relationships with suppliers.
Rob Williams from Jewson said trading had followed a similar pattern. “The first quarter was incredibly strong,” he said. “Then the National Insurance changes started to bite and that positive growth declined a bit, but we’re now seeing a little more volume growth again.” Construction timber had been “the strongest-performing category,” which he described as “really pleasing”.
Discussion then turned to broader market constraints, and Keith pointed to planning delays as one of the biggest obstacles. “Planning permission is incredibly difficult in the UK right now,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest stalling points of the whole market, particularly for smaller independents.” He also warned that tighter cash management means merchants will carry lower stock levels: “The suppliers who will win are those who can respond best to our demands – providing smaller, mixed deliveries and stock on the shelf when we need it.”
The panel also discussed product quality, and the need for full compliance with timber treatment standards. Gareth said MKM labelled all its treated timber with its correct Use Class “to educate staff and customers”, though acknowledged that this sometimes cost sales when buyers opted for cheaper alternatives elsewhere.
On current financial risks in the market, the merchants said they were watching bad debts closely. “We’ve been extremely aggressive on collection,” Keith said, and Gareth added that while insolvencies were rising, “it’s not as bad as feared.”
The discussion then turned to workforce challenges, and what merchants could do to encourage tradespeople to consider a career in construction. Rob said Jewson is reaching younger tradespeople through TikTok and social media, while Keith’s team is focusing on mentoring. “Young people are crying out for help,” he said. “We can’t always offer financial support, but we can offer advice on how to start out and run a small business.”
Despite the pressures, the mood among the panel was cautiously positive. As Gareth put it, “It’s been a difficult year, but we’ve grown by being smart, staying close to our customers and focusing on service. There’s still plenty to play for.”
